Violet's First Modeling Gig

I've been waiting for Melissa to have a baby so I could use the baby as a model to photograph my baby afghans.

I created this yellow, white and grey chevron baby afghan for Melissa's friend, Heather, who's having a baby girl (Riley) in June. We sat Violet in her chair and gave her the afghan. I was able to get a pretty good picture. It's hard to get Violet to sit still long enough to take a picture so styling and position are out of the question. Plus poor Violet kept waiting for Melissa to slap an Etsy sticker on her.

Dinner at Pizza Barn

There's a new restaurant in town. It's called Pizza Ranch but for some reason I keep calling it Pizza Barn. This is a buffet pizza place with a little more than pizza. There's a salad bar, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits, dessert pizza and of course all different varieties of pizza. I went through the line and picked out a slice of Hawaiian pizza and an alfredo pizza. Jamie came back to the table and had something a little more interesting - I couldn't tell what it was but it had black olives on it. I went back for another slice, didn't see the black olives and ended up with a slice of Canadian bacon pizza. Jamie went for another slice and came back with a BLT slice of pizza. I don't know what I was doing wrong but I couldn't eat another slice in order to try again.

Jamie's Aunt Pam was able to join us. Pam has a tendency to talk with her hands like most of us do. I glanced at Violet and she was mimicking each and every move Pam made. She would also laugh when Pam laughed. Violet never ceases to keep us entertained at dinner.

Happy Birthday Michele!

There's nothing worse than having someone ask "what would you like for your birthday?" As we get older there's usually nothing left to buy. And if there is something you want, someone else certainly couldn't afford it. So I wrack my brain to try and think of something cute and clever for birthday gifts. Today is Michele's birthday and we are constantly talking about dieting. We tell each other we have some type of vacation or event coming up and we want to lose a few pounds. Michele usually lasts a lot longer than me. I can only last about 20 minutes before caving in.

So when I saw this poster I just had to get it for her. Then I went through old pictures and found this one of us at about the same age as the two little girls on the poster.

One good thing about having an older sister is that she will ALWAYS be older. So Happy Birthday Michele. I hope you enjoyed the margaritas!

Babysitting Duty

Melissa and Jamie went to a conference this morning so I babysat for Violet and the puppies. After several kisses goodbye, Jamie almost had to drag Melissa out the front door. This is the first time she's left Violet awake with anyone but her Daddy. I think Melissa thought Violet would kick and scream as she walked out the door but Violet didn't seem to mind.

We spent the first part of the morning playing the Katy Perry video on the iPad and reading books plus taking every baggie and dog treat out of the drawers in the kitchen. It was storming so the puppies were hiding.

Then it was snack time. Violet starts out with several gold fish crackers in her cup but usually only eats 1 or 2 and feeds the rest to the puppies. Lola and Khloe aren't in this picture but they were standing close by waiting for the rest of the crackers.

I was dreading morning nap time since Melissa is the only one who can get Violet to sleep without taking her out for a car ride. I tried to put her to sleep in my bed - that didn't work. I went downstairs to put her in Melissa's bed - that didn't work. So I wound up rocking her until she fell asleep then stayed as still as I could for the next hour. I was taking a big risk waking her just to take this selfie.

Even though my leg and butt went numb, Violet woke up happy. After nap we both had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I kept watching the clock counting the minutes before Melissa and Jamie would be home.

Violet even spent a lot of time on the couch reading her books. The other time was spent running from the deck to the front door and again watching the Katy Perry video. But Violet surprised me with how good she was for the 6 hours, 22 minutes and 13 seconds I had her. She was even surprised when Melissa walked in. Although I think she was punishing her because she ran to her Daddy and didn't pay that much attention to Melissa.

This is just another example of why we have kids when we're young. It doesn't seem like I exerted that much energy but my stress levels are high. I'm exhausted.

New Shoes and More New Shoes

Violet hit the jackpot today with 2 new pairs of shoes.

Now that Violet has mastered walking, Melissa wants her to have good fitting shoes. She went to several places looking for Stride Rite shoes before she finally ordered them and had them shipped to the house. They arrived today and Violet is having a bit of trouble learning to walk with shoes on.

Last November I bought Violet her first pair of New Balance tennis shoes. They were too big for her then and now they may be a bit small. They fit perfectly without socks. But Violet is still more interested in the box they came in than the shoes. In order for me to get any type of picture I had to let her hold the box. Not too long now before she'll be running.

"Brinner"

You've heard of brunch...well for dinner tonight we had "brinner".

It's not unusual to have breakfast for dinner but now it has a name. Scrambled eggs with Canadian bacon and cheese, hash browns and toast. Yum!

Happy Easter

For the past several years I've racked my brain each Easter to create Easter baskets for my kids that are age appropriate. So of course I'd go out and buy chocolate and stash a few dollars in a plastic Easter egg. This year I had to be a little more creative since I'm now playing Easter bunny for Violet. Years ago I would have gone out and bought the classic chocolate Easter bunny, peeps and jelly beans. But parents today don't allow candy especially for someone's Violet's age.

So I found one of Violet's favorite animals, a duck (quack, quack), shaped into an Easter basket and stuffed it with animal crackers, squeezable fruit, nibbly fingers (like a granola bar for toddlers), cereal bars and French toast goldfish crackers. This might be a chick but we're going with a duck.

Looks like Violet would have preferred chocolate!

Violet also got her first taste of giving a gift to me. She bought me an Easter basket with a bag of my favorite Topsy's cheese popcorn and a card with her handprint on the back. This is worth more to me than any gift bought in a store. But she did cry when she realized it wasn't for her.

Michael had to work early today so instead of cooking an Easter dinner for just me, Jamie, Melissa and Violet, we decided to go to Harrah's and meet Michael for dinner. It's not bad going out to dinner on a holiday. I'm thinking of doing this for all the holidays.

Security Blanket

Just like Linus in the Peanuts cartoon, Violet doesn't go anywhere without her blanket.

She even carries it around the house, out on the deck, and if you don't hide it, she wants to eat with it. The other day Violet spilled the water out of the dogs' water dish and Melissa had to put her blanket in the dryer. Violet stood by the dryer until it was dry. Melissa wants me to crochet another blanket for her but she wants it just like this one. In all the years I've been crocheting, I've never duplicated a blanket and I don't think I want to start now. I think my next project will be to make Violet what I call a junior afghan - a little bigger than a baby afghan but not as big as one for an adult. I don't think she'll trade in her old one. She'll carry that afghan around until there's nothing left but a few shreds of yarn.

Springtime at the Park

After Melissa and Violet went shopping on Friday, they stopped at a park to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather.

Violet loves to climb and slide but hates the swing.

Today they continued their shopping - Melissa is looking for shoes for Violet - and stopped at the fire station to visit Daddy. This is probably the first and last time Violet will be wearing this outfit. She grows so fast that Melissa can't keep up with her clothes. I hope her feet don't grow before she gets her new shoes. They're on order and won't come in until Tuesday.

More Progress on the New House

We took a drive on Wednesday to check out the progress on the new house.

We couldn't have picked a colder day to go. But at least the walls were up and blocked some of the wind. When we went upstairs the roofers stopped working so nothing would fall on us. I told Jamie we needed to leave. I don't want to be the cause for any delays!

New House Progress

Progress is being made on Melissa and Jamie's new house.

Violet went out to help Dad do a little clean up and check the quality of the products being used. They're hoping by Friday to have the roof on the house. But the weather is doing little to cooperate. One day it's sunny and 75 degrees, the next day it's snowing.

Melissa saw a quote on Facebook that said I don't know whether to clean out the storm shelter or get out the snow shovel. How true!

Happy Birthday Teresa

I can't believe I've been working on this blog for over a year and I still can't remember to take pictures.

Today is Teresa's 53rd birthday. Teresa, Dad, Karen, Brad and I went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Our days of late night birthday celebrations are over. I believe we were all home and in bed by 9:00. Happy Birthday Teresa!

Jamie's Creative Birthday Present

Jamie and Melissa have so many friends with kids and they all have big birthday parties. It's hard to think of different ideas for gifts when most of these kids have more toys than their parents have room to store them. And forget buying clothes. They grow way too fast.

So Jamie put his creative skills to good use and made this life size ruler. The first foot mark is placed so the ruler can be mounted just above the baseboard in your house and you can measure the growth of your kids. I liked it so much that I put in my request for one for Mother's Day. I won't be doing much growing but I want to use it as decoration for my new game room downstairs.

Angela's Afghan

I've tried so hard to design afghans and put the patterns on Etsy. But I can't get excited about just crocheting an afghan without having a particular person in mind. So I continue to design for someone's birthday, new baby, anniversary or just about any occasion I can think of.

My latest design was created for Melissa's friend Angela. I believe besides my family, she's my biggest blog follower. This is a chevron pattern in deep purple and teal.

It looks like Angela really enjoyed this.

Violet's One Year Doctor Visit

If it's not enough that Violet has to completely strip in order to get her 1 year checkup, she had to endure having her blood drawn and 4 shots.

The stress of the whole situation had Melissa leaving the room and 3 nurses had to be called to administer Violet's shots.

The purple bandage is where they drew blood. You can see 2 dot bandages on her right leg and there are 2 that match on her left. But nothing can keep this girl down. Shortly after she got home, she was driving around the living room in her car.